Soria Girl

When Dad told me the news, I was purely happy. But throughout the week, I began to get scared. Scared of what Claymore might be like.

It was only maybe half a year I’d been in Santa Monica. It was a year I’d been gone, and everyone changed dramatically. And Crash died, too. Maybe if I stayed at the pier, he’d still be alive. Dunno how that would affect anything, but you never know.

Maybe my friends changed just like they did. Hopefully, we’d still be close like we were, but what was hoping? That wouldn’t help me much. I couldn’t just hope, I had to know.

I called the guys a couple times and sent a few emails and postcards, but it just wasn’t the same as talking face to face with them. It didn’t do any good because we were only saying words and I couldn’t actually see them.

So I did what any kid like me would do after hearing such news - I called my best buddy, Ren Hawker, despite being a little nervous about what happened with the webcam night. And despite being nervous about our little phone chat a few days after. And despite being nervous about how he’d react to me (eventually) telling him who Michael freakin’ McEwin was.

The phone rang twice before someone finally picked it up. My sweaty palm cupped the receiver, my other hand playing with the cord.

“Hello!” Mrs. Hawker greeted happily.

“Hi, Mrs. Hawker,” I said back.

“Soria? Oh my, it’s been so long! How are you?”

“Um, fine. Can I talk to Ren?”

“Sure, honey! Ren!”

I laughed quietly. My heart pounded in my chest as I heard the low rush of air on the other end. But once I heard a familiar (and slightly deeper) voice say, “Hey,” my face split into a huge grin.

“Hey!” I said.

“Soria?” he gasped.

“Yeah! Um, listen--”

“What’s up?”

“I’m about to tell you, so shut up! I’m moving back!”

…The other end went silent for a minute.

“What?”

“I’m moving back to Claymore!”

Ren stuttered and laughed, saying, “You’re serious?!”

I nodded but then remembered he couldn’t see me. “Yeah!” I squealed.

“Holy crap! When?”

“My dad wants us to be there by Sunday!”

He hooted some more and sounded like he was throwing a ten second party. “Oh my god! Dude, do you know how awesome that is?!” He said it all in a rush, so I couldn’t help but be amused by his behavior. He must’ve missed me a lot.

More importantly, I was going back!

“This is awesome! We’ll be Plaster Caster again, and we can perform at the dance, and -” he started.

“Dance?”

“Yeah, they’re having a Thanksgiving dance. We were gonna do it but not without you.” I smiled. From what I’d heard so far, these guys didn’t change one bit.

“Thanks,” I whispered.

“Listen - I’m gonna go tell the guys about this and then I’ll call right back. Is that cool?” he added. I said yeah and we hung up.

That made me insanely happy - almost the happiest I’d ever been. Ren didn’t change, at least, and…I was going back to Claymore! The mere thought got me high! And I thought Ren’s reaction was kind of funny, since I never knew he could be so loud. Even to me.

And maybe I could tell him face-to-face how I felt instead of doing it over the Internet…

In about five minutes, the phone rang again and I picked it up, not checking the caller ID. Once I did, my eardrum exploded as three familiar voices shouted into the receiver.

“Sssooorrriiiaaa!”

Ren, Luke, and Brendan screamed my name as loud as they possibly could. I flinched at first, still able to hear it even as I pushed the phone away, but ended up laughing my ass off.

“Guys, quiet!” I shushed, snickering uncontrollably.

“You’re comin’ back!” Brendan shouted, his voice a little deeper than I remembered.

“We’re gonna do a little - mph!” Ren started, but someone muffled his speech.

“Don’t tell her!” Luke urged.

I raised an eyebrow. “Tell me what?” They just went silent.

“Um, nothing,” Ren said in a rush. I smiled and asked again, but they didn’t say anything.

“Whatever you say,” I gave up, gesturing my hand. Suddenly, the phone thunked on the other end, so I presumed someone (probably Brendan) dropped it.

“Yeah! It’s nothin’!” Brendan said, obviously hiding something. I didn’t bother trying to make them talk anymore.

“Alright. So I guess I’ll see you guys soon,” I bid farewell and hung up, but not without a harmonized goodbye from the rest of Plaster Caster.

And I never quit wondering what they were hiding.